50 years of Viet Nam-UNICEF partnership: the early days

When Fuad Kronfol was appointed UNICEF Viet Nam Representative in 1979, his goal was to move UNICEF away from being a supply-driven agency in Viet Nam to one that was more comprehensive in its approach. Two prone strategy was followed:

• Orient the existing programme of relief and rehab actions towards more of a longer-term developmental mode, including actions in health, child-care, education, nutrition, women's activities, social services for youth, and Rural Water Supply and Sanitation (RWSS).
• Concentrate UNICEF assistance in six provinces, three in the north and three in the south.

RWSS programme initially started in the southern provinces. Leo Goulet arrived in Viet Nam as Chief of RWSS in September 1980 - the section’s first international staff member. He quickly established a good working relationship with government counterparts, with an interpreter facilitating interaction and communication. Later, four additional international staff members, including me were recruited: Abul Kalam and Rana Zafar for water supply, and Dick van Ginhoven for sanitation. To support our team, we had highly dedicated Vietnamese support staff consisting of Lê Quang Vinh, Ðỗ Trọng Khải, Pham Bá Ðài deputed from Service Bureau of Foreign Ministry of Viet Nam. I also would like to mention HÓ Kim Thuý from the Administration for her extraordinary support for the RWSS section.

Normally, UNICEF assistance to RWSS is channelled through Ministries of Health or Ministries of Water Resources, but the situation in Viet Nam was different. The Government was in the process of developing New Economic Zones, where people were being resettled, under the responsibility of the Ministry of Labour, and where providing access to safe drinking water was a priority. During initial discussions, it was agreed that UNICEF assistance would, accordingly, be channelled through that ministry. It was also agreed that RWSS Programme implementation would begin in three provinces of the Mekong Delta: Long An, Minh Hai and Kien Giang. A RWSS unit was established within the Ministry of Labour, dedicated to supporting the UNICEF-assisted programme, and government officials and staff were assigned to the programme in all three provinces.

The first step was to determine the type of RWSS assistance that was the most appropriate, which could only be done with firsthand knowledge of the existing situation. So, soon after arriving, Leo visited the provinces. Based on his observations, he concluded that hand-pump equipped boreholes were likely to be the most appropriate technology. Available information indicated that there were suitable aquifers, overlain with thick deposits of clay, particularly in the lower delta area. Drilling through clay, even with manually operated drilling rigs up to depths of 100 metres or so is easy, as was being demonstrated in countries like India and Bangladesh. 

Leo arranged for some key government officials to travel to Bangladesh to witness the work firsthand, which showed that the use of these methods in Viet Nam would be appropriate. It was after this visit that Leo arranged for Abul Kalam, who was employed as a drilling and hand-pump specialist by UNICEF Bangladesh, to be transferred to UNICEF Viet Nam to assist with the development of the borehole-hand pump project. Abul arrived in mid-June 1982 and immediately got to work. The first hand-pump equipped borehole was put into operation, in formerly Minh Hai province, on 3 July 1982.

While work continued in Minh Hai, the installation of hand-pump equipped boreholes was undertaken in Long An and Kien Giang provinces. Before long, the three northern provinces, where I would later be assigned, were included too. Over the years, other provinces were incorporated, until the programme became country wide. 

Extract from Ram Prasad Koirala's book 'Colossal Love: My Life's Journey' under the chapter 'My Days in Vietnam'